Dragon Rampant 2

I am not a huge fantasy gamer, but I have a modest collection and enjoyed Dragon Rampant when it came along, as I do all of Dan Mersey's rules. As I understood, the core rules had hardly changed, and since I have been playing Midgard, I didn't rush to buy the heavier, glossier tome that is the 2nd Edition. However, a reasonable price and chatting with pals at Battleground led me to take a copy away.

Not changing the core rules much is a good thing. There are a few tweaks from Lion Rampant's upgrade, including the option of abandoning the silly 3" gap between units, which Dan appears reluctant to relinquish. The standard warband is larger at 30 points, although this just accommodates the cost of special rules. Leaders also pay for traits that were previously random.

The significant change is in the special rules that upgrade units. It adds more complexity, as I almost always forget I have them. However, this is an improvement because it allows you to reflect the characteristics of units that fit into a broad unit category. There are a lot of these in the book, and you can design your own. Spells have also been overhauled, although I rarely use these, so I don't know how they play. There are optional rules, some of which enable big battles to be fought, with units having flanks, group moves and the like. If I want a bigger battle, I am more likely to choose Midgard, but it's a workable alternative.

There are more scenarios, a campaign system, and additional sample army lists. The book is a work of art in its own right, with some fine illustrations and tabletop eye candy. In summary, it's an excellent set of rules for the price. I will be dusting down my Game of Thrones and Conan armies for this.

We tried them on the tabletop for our midweek game. 30 points a side, which was a 24-point army with a stack of add-ons to see how they played. I had the orcs, with mostly bellicose warbands that are fast and deadly but a bit brittle. Supplemented by Trolls, who can have a clever add-on, which makes them 14 strength points instead of the usual 12, and so a bit stronger and resilient. My opponent took my dwarves. He hoped to shoot me to death with two shooting units, one of which had crossbows with extended range. Points that were wasted when they failed to activate twice! However, activation failures meant they held a couple of hills, and my orcs bounced off several times before breaking. Not enough Waaagh!